It is January in Alaska.
Translation: It’s dark and cold. I don’t mind the cold- anything above room temperature and I turn into a fire-breathing harpy. But the dark?
I hate the dark.
I love summer because I can garden at midnight or play outside with my daughter and not realize it’s two hours past her bedtime. I can get up at 7AM and not be tired because it’s already been light out for over three hours. But to appreciate the light I have to get through the dark.
This seems apropo as I delve into my 5th set of revisions for Hatshepsut. This is actually my 6th or 7th set of revisions, but I didn’t keep track of the first two as it was just organizing plot and cleaning up the story. I’m starting to see a tiny pinprick of light beckoning me to the end. Or at least the end when I can begin to query.
Terresa over at Chocolate Chip Waffle posted the other day that agent Jen Rofe said not to query until you’ve revised at least seven times. I’m going to be right in that ballpark.
What about you? How many times have you revised or how many times do you think you’ll revise at this stage in your game?
Hang in there Stephanie, you're doing great. The blood you shed in revision is what makes you a Real Writer.
I'll probably revise at least six times between now and April. Or at least that's my goal based on when I wanted to start querying.
I understand how you feel coz I find it mentally exhausting to do revisions though I know I've got to.
Cheer up, all the best and keep us posted.
I have no idea how many times I've revised my WIP, and I don't think I want to know. I'm pretty sure I'm safely at seven, though! 🙂
Keep chugging along, Stephanie. We are all dying to buy a copy of that book. 🙂
I've lost count, but I'd say it's somewhere around six. When I finish this one, I'm planning on doing one more. If I can't get it right by then, well, I'll move on to another project for a while. I see both the good and the bad with the Alaska daylight hours. I don't mind the dark usually, but I see how it would get old. I would absolutely love the long summer days, though.
I'm in the double digits on revisions on a couple of manuscripts.
Oh lordy… do you just want to sleep all day when it's dark all the time? Sigh… I'm yawning just thinking about it. As for revision… I think it depends on how well you wrote it in the first place. 😉 (Lame answer but I slept in today and now my brain is mush.)
It's so overwhelming to think of how many revisions we must do (it didn't say that in the handbook!)
When I think of light and dark, it always reminds me of the chant in A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula LeGuin)
Only in silence the word
only in dark the light,
only in dying life:
bright the hawk's flight
on the empty sky.
After I'm finished, I revise 2 – 3 times, but I spend much of my writing time revising, too. I'd say it's probably a 20/80 split (20% writing, 80 revising)
How many times am I going to revise? I shudder to think. Really. Shudder.
Elspeth
I don't know. With my last manuscript I revise constantly (an hour a day usually) for 4 months. I went over the manuscript many, many times but didn't have clear draft separations.
EVERY time and I do mean EVERY time I read something I've previously written, I will find something to fix in it. So, I can't even count the times I've revised my novels lol.
It's the perfectionist it me 🙁
I am currently in my first revision. I have a long road ahead of me but that's okay. I am eager to read your story. That light that is calling to you will soon be blinding. Keep going.
I would never drag my bones out of bed with all that darkness!
Seven sounds like a perfect number. Probably because it's my favorite number!
I've lost count… Good luck with revision and summer sounds awesome in Alaska!
I plan on going through 2 rounds of revisions before my WiP goes to my crit group. After that, I have no idea how many rounds I'll end up through. But I figure it will be at least 4 before the book could start to show glimmers of publishability.
I think I'm at about 9??? Scary number anyway. Still not completely happy with it yet – but much happier than I was 🙂
I'm about to do a second draft of something I'd shelved months ago for its issues. Well, it might not be accurate to call this a revision, actually, since I'm about to drop off the whole end and rewrite from there, but I'll call it a revision in my head anyway.
I love that photo! Good luck with your revisions. I revised my first manuscript about four times, but I'm still not happy with it. I've moved on to a new one, so I can go back with a fresh perspective. I expect it will be several more revisions before I'm happy with it (if ever).
That is just the perfect comparison Stephanie! The beauty of writing and revising is that usually right when you're thinking you should just delete the whole darn manuscript, it starts working. Personally, I think frustration means you're getting close!
my file says I've revised 4 and a half times, but that doesn't include the complete rewrite it got when I started, or the eighty-gazillion times I reshuffled the chapters to make sure they were in the best order for the reader, and it definitely doesn't take into account the seven years I was building it in my head without writing.
Soooo… I don't know. I hope not more than a couple more, but it'll be done when it's done, I guess?
Hat is so polished, though, Stephanie, I think there is definitely light pouring through 🙂